Document Requirements

• Unofficial documents for review

• Translations

• Official documents for admission

• Credential evaluations

• Reviewing your checklist

• Tips

Unofficial documents for review

WVU will review your application based on unofficial transcripts. You can upload unofficial transcripts with your application or in your applicant portal. You should be prepared to provide unofficial documents from every post-secondary institution you attended.

Translations

Any documents that were not issued by a university in English should be accompanied by a literal, word-for-word translation. The original language documents also need to be submitted. Translations alone will not be accepted. The translations requirement applies to both official and unofficial documents. 

Official documents for admission

If your department wants to admit you, we will email you to share that news!  You will need to provide official transcripts before you can receive a University admission letter, claim your WVU account, or start I-20 onboarding (if applicable).

All applicants are required to provide official transcripts for their bachelor’s degree (or comparable degree(s)). If your program requires a master’s degree, you will also need to provide those official transcripts. If you’ve completed your bachelor’s degree, your transcripts must show the completion of the degree.

If you haven’t completed your degree at the time you need to send official transcripts, then you must send transcripts showing the completion of the courses you’ve completed and the grades you’ve received to date. You will need to provide documents that show you earned your degree to enroll. 

Paper documents

WVU accepts original or certified paper copies received by mail as official.

Original documents are those issued by the school directly to WVU or issued to you in a sealed envelope that you can send to WVU (do not break the seal on the school’s envelope). Transcripts are considered official when we can tell they were issued by a legitimate source at your university.

Certified copies are copies of original documents that have a stamp, seal or signature from an office that is authorized to make exact copies of important documents. Certified copies can also be called attested or notarized copies. Certified copies are considered official when we can tell that an appropriate office approved the copy as an exact replica of the original.

Original or certified paper copies can be mailed to WVU at:

Office of Admissions
West Virginia University
1 Waterfront Place
Morgantown, WV 26506

Electronic documents

WVU accepts documents delivered through the following services as official: 

• WES ICAP

• ECE Dispatch

• Parchment

• eScript

• The National Student Clearinghouse

• ETX.NG

• MyCreds.ca

Transcripts that can be verified through an online university or governmental system can be accepted as official after verification. 

Documents emailed as PDFs directly to WVU from a university or ministry can be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. At a minimum, we will need to be able to verify the email address is authorized to send official documents through reliable sources. Any evidence of spoofing will result in document rejection. Even some legitimate documents will not pass our security measures and cannot be accepted via email.

Credential evaluations

Credential evaluations are not required by WVU in most cases. If WVU’s evaluation of your degree determines that you are not eligible for graduate study, then you will be asked to provide a WES evaluation to proceed (only WES, not other agencies). The application fee is non-refundable. Please review our policies on degree comparability and consider getting your credential evaluated before applying if you have concerns. 

If you apply with a WES evaluation, WVU will accept their credential advice. You will be required to provide the WES ICAP evaluation as your official transcript.

Applicants with credential evaluations from other NACES or AICE recognized agencies will be required to provide and unofficial copy of their transcripts for review in addition to their evaluation report. We accept copies of transcripts from NACES or AICE members as official certified transcripts. We accept credential advice only from WES. We do not accept credential advice from other agencies. 

No documents are accepted from evaluation agencies that are not NACES or AICE members.

Reviewing Your your checklist

The checklist will show what the documents we’ve received and what documents we still need to move your application forward.

Before you make arrangements to send official transcripts, you should check your checklist to see which transcripts are required.